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Every year, The Brunel Writer Prize is awarded to the student with the highest graded article submission for the Creative Industries module on Brunel University’s Creative Writing Programme. Scott Bransby is a runner-up for The Brunel Writer Prize 2024 with ‘An Interview with the Voice in My Head,’ an honest discussion with… himself.

In January 2024, Scott Bransby sat down with himself to write a short piece of fiction for his portfolio. The following is an exclusive transcript between Scott and the voice in his head, Cecelia.

Scott: What am I supposed to write exactly? I mean, there is so much I could do, but none feel right. What do people really want to hear from me?

Cecelia: Hi.

S: Not now, I’m concentrating.

C: Hellooo…

S: Shut it. Haven’t you got somewhere to be? Imagining one of your fancy lives where you’re a stay-at-home mum of two or the CEO of a major conglomerate corporation.

C: Nah-ah. I’m right here now with you. Whatcha doing?

S: Trying to write a portfolio piece, thanks for your disruption.

C: What are you thinking of writing?

S: If you must know and aren’t leaving anytime soon, I was initially going to start writing my fantasy chapter- but I just can’t shake the feeling that something won’t work. I don’t even know if anyone would even like what I bring to the genre.

C: Well… I like your writing.

S: You would.

C: What’s that supposed to mean?

S: Well, you are an extension of myself. Your thoughts and feelings fluctuate based on how I feel. If I don’t like something, you don’t like it either. If you like my writing, then I like what I’ve written. It’s quite simple. 

C: That’s not the case though, Scott-o. You don’t like what you’re writing currently. I should know – I have a psychic ability where I can read your mind and know exactly what you are thinking. I’ll try it now: cheese… Dua Lipa… intertextuality?

S: I’m writing my Games Design thesis as well-

C: I blocked that out: mega yawn-fest. I like the drama of living these stories out in your brain. Remember that piece you wrote back in your first-year fiction module at university? The one with sisters fighting for the crests of their Queendom? What about last year, when you wrote that twisted fairy tale about the girl trapped in a dungeon of her own hair? I got to live as each of those characters, feel their souls and taste their very essence. 

S: Well thanks-

C: Now, the fiction you write is so… commercial. It’s like you write because you must, not because you want to. How am I supposed to get into character as yet another widow who thinks she has seen her dead husband? It’s so played out. You are not the next Harlen Coben – you are Scott Bransby. Where’s your inspiration gone?

S: I-

C: No. I am not done. I’m sick of you not writing stuff I enjoy anymore. You grew up in a town brimming with inspiration. Not many people can say they ate breakfast opposite Shakespeare’s birthplace every Saturday. Your writing is unique – you colour the world outside the lines and reference every detail to your own detriment. I enjoy living in stories like that, where you authored my world. Your work may be good, but I know you don’t feel anything towards it. There, mic-drop. You can speak now.

S: I don’t know what to say. I didn’t realise you cared so much about my work. I’ve been so caught up writing for a faceless person or writing what I feel is compulsory that I forgot I should want to read it too; that you are the constant in my narrative, my guiding hand. You’ve always been there for me, watching–

C: Ew, you’re getting soppy. This isn’t the place for you to get soppy.

S: Oh, alright. Well, that still doesn’t solve what I should write for this portfolio piece.

C: Listen, maybe I can help with that…

Scott Bransby is a BA Games Design & Creative Writing graduate from Brunel University. Separating the self from the work allows Scott to humanise his words and speak from a deeper, reflective place. A self-proclaimed chatterbox, he loves to write as much as he loves to talk, leaving the little room remaining for casting eldritch blasts on Baldur’s Gate 3 and shiny hunting Pokémon.